


Light Fading

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [88]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-14 20:46:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1278316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He will never have a chance to meet his niece's young son, or give her his blessing as he had neglected to do when she took up the offer of a wedding in Gondor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light Fading

**Author's Note:**

> Théoden, at the end  
> Prompt: Young  
> Alternate Universe: Road to Mundburg

He will never have a chance to meet his niece's young son, or give her his blessing as he had neglected to do when she took up the offer of a wedding in Gondor. When she had - as Éomer had reminded him so recently - escaped a place she had felt closing in about her like a trap, and his own worries had left her vulnerable to someone he'd trusted.

It is not a pleasant truth to face when he cannot move, cannot escape the looming death that comes for him in the form of an ancient evil and its beast. Even the trembling boy and the halfling - two he had thought safely remaining in Gondor - that stand between him and the creature do not deter it, though they put up a valiant defense. Though it is a defense that gives time to unfamiliar figures, led by one too dear and beloved for him to imagine is truly upon the battlefield, to position themselves in his defense, and that of the boy.

One of them kneels next to him, a helm discarded in favor of sight that she - a dark-haired woman of Gondor as a shield-maiden, he can only smile at what his niece has wrought - might try to save him.

"Even if the beast cannot take me, I will not live." His breath is already becoming labored, as he drowns in his own blood from a body crushed by his horse. Théoden reaches out, taking the hand that is offered, mail-gauntleted and fine-boned. "Tell Éowyn she has always had my blessing, though I could not speak it when she left."

"You will tell her yourself, even if it is all that you might have left to do." The woman sounds little more than a girl, and Théoden wonders just how young this companion of Éowyn's is. She looks up, a worried frown on her face as she watches what Théoden cannot see. "She is the bravest woman I have ever met, and I am glad to have her for a cousin." Worried gray eyes meet his own gaze a moment. "She must have learned it from you. Live, at least a little longer, for her?"

He would, could he defy his doom, but Théoden fears he cannot do as he's asked, with each breath harder and harder to draw, and the light fading from his sight. Théoden hears the death-scream of the Witch-King, and struggles to keep drawing breath, listening for Éowyn, trying to summon a smile when her pale face appears above his own.

Raising a hand to touch her cheek, he tries to speak the blessing he should have given her five years ago. He can't draw enough breath to make it heard, but she smiles, tears in her eyes, and he hears her murmured, "I know."

**Author's Note:**

> Feels, I can has them. Ow. That was not fun to write, but it needed to be written. And now my Théoden-muse is drinking ale and telling stories to other muses, and generally ignoring me glaring at him. Blasted man.


End file.
